I gathered together my meager possessions from under the front desk at the hospital. Melissa smiled at me and nodded, then stood, her beam radiant suddenly.

Closing my bag, I stood and watched as a man approached the same desk. He had all of Melissa's attention. He wore torn blue jeans with a gray shirt and black jacket. I swore, his eyes were even bluer than the sheriff's. Although I could see before that his hair had been darker, it was peppered with gray throughout, a fine match to his beard.

"Hello, Beautiful," he said when he reached Melissa, leaning over and kissing her. "Evening, Handsome." She replied. "Brought you dinner. Cooked it myself." "I don't deserve you," she said, giggling, "thank you."

I tried to hurry away, as not to interrupt their conversation anymore, but Melissa turned and motioned to me. "Rach, come and meet my husband. Chris," she said to him, putting her arm around me, "this is my assistant, Rachel. Rachel, this is my husband, Chris." "Nice to meet you, Rachel." He said, giving me a winning smile.

"Likewise," I said, taking his outstretched hand. I liked him well enough, and if he was with Melissa, I knew he was decent, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't even understand why. He seemed nice, polite.

"Well, I've got to get on back home," I said, "take care." "Be careful going home, Rach," Chris said, "there have been high levels of activity in the woods recently."

That's what it was: He knew!

I sent him a nod over my shoulder and went on my way to my car. He had reminded me that I needed to get home and do more studying up on this creature.

Since my little visit to the library two weeks before, I had been shy to go there again, and most of the time it had cops around it anyway, and I wanted to avoid them as much as possible.

I pulled my keys out of the pocket of my scrubs to open the car door, then sat in the quiet for a moment, in deep thought of my next move.

I didn't notice Theo come up to my window, so I was quite startled when he just opened the door and crawled into the passenger seat without warning.

"You seriously have to stop doing that," I scolded him, "I'm jumpy as it is, what with this creature running around and all!"

"Do I scare you, Rachel?" He asked, a sly grin on his face. "Yes and no," I said, giving him a look, "don't you ever go home?" "Here and there," he answered.

I met his eyes then, squashing the wings of the butterflies in my stomach mentally when they tried to take flight. "Theo, why are you here?"

"I just…well, do you have anything else on the creature?"

"No, I don't. I've been sifting through papers, surfing websites, reading books. I'm doing all I can, and I'll let one of you know."

"Alright." He said, but made no movement to get out. It shifted to awkward silence, but I tried to stay calm. "Is…there anything else?" I finally asked.

"No, why would there be?" "Because you're still sitting in my car."

"Look," he said after a few minutes of quiet, "I…worry…about you. You have no way of defending yourself when you're alone against the monster, and we already know from last time that you would basically announce your presence right off the bat." Always with the insult. "Liam and Cora freak out randomly about it too, so you can't call me paranoid."

"I wasn't going to. I…appreciate you guys' concern, but really, I'm fine." I refrained from adding that something trying to kill me was nothing new in my life. Damian hadn't always been tracking me, but my sixteenth year was far from the first time he had done something to endanger my life. I still remembered when I four, and he was fifteen, and he told me that the best hiding spot was the dryer.

He had proceeded to lock the door and turn it on. Thank goodness my mother had heard my cries.

"You're not 'fine', Rachel. No one is ever just fine in Beacon Hills. This is far from the first time a creature we didn't know existed has showed up and tried to kill everyone." "Funny," I said. "What could possibly be funny about what I just said?" He asked irritably.

"Liam told me you didn't care about Beacon Hills, or anyone for that matter." "I don't. But I am an ally to the people who protect this place, and what bothers them involves me. If they were into killing everyone and taking over the town, I'd be for that instead."

My heart thumped loudly against my ribcage. How easily he could turn…it sounded like something Damian would say, though he would never swing for the winning team.

"At least you're honest." I murmured.

"Sometimes. I pretty much do what benefits me. If I have to lie, I lie. If truth is necessary, I might say it. I'm not a good guy, or a bad guy. Just the guy who does what is best for him."

He said all of this carefully and plainly, just laid it out.

"Do you talk to anyone else like this?" I asked, feeling a smile come to my lips as I looked at him. "Not really. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not very popular." "That makes two of us." I chuckled.

"At least Liam and Cora like you. By no means do I need anyone's approval, and I've gone years without friends. Come to think of it, I don't even remember a time that I had someone I liked being around. I just kind of stick to one place for a while, then move on. I think Beacon Hills has probably been the place I stayed longest."

I could more than understand every single word that came out of his mouth. We were completely different, but absolutely the same.

Rain began to patter on the windshield, and I took a deep breath, feeling a little refreshed.

"Theo, I think I understand you more than you know." I turned to him, keeping hold of his eyes with mine and asked seriously, "Where do you really call home?"

His eyes darted from mine, and for a few seconds, he looked angry. He stared out of the window for a bit, then sighed and turned back to me, nearly growling, "That blue pickup. That's my home."

Sympathy flooded through me. There were too many times that an abandoned woodshed, a broken down car, even a trash can became my temporary home.

"If you don't want to, it's understandable, because even after all this time, we've barely breached the area of 'friends', but…I have a couch, in a dry, warm room. I'm not insulting your truck, but if you want to crash there occasionally, all you have to do is let me know."

~Theo POV~

My heart thundered in my chest.

This was the girl who had insulted, put down on, blasphemed, and assaulted me, yet here she was offering me a place on her couch. Maybe I hadn't given her enough credit…ever.

I was finding out that there was so much more to her than a scared, weak little girl. She hid herself, but she was kind, generous, and strong, in more than one way. And to the core, she was a woman.

Liam was right, I didn't deserve her, but hey, we're all selfish by nature, and I certainly took the cake for selfishness.

The problem was, one, how did I go about trying to be the one she needed and two, was there any chance she would feel the same? Could my pride allow myself to care about her?

And especially, could I take her offer in an effort to get closer to her without fucking it up or appearing weak?

"I…might do that sometime. Thanks, Rachel." I said.

Maybe that would work.

"Okay, Theo. Well, I need to get back to the house. My offer is there, whenever, alright?"

I nodded, then opened the door and hopped out. Once inside my truck, I allowed a little panic to settle within me. I hadn't ever felt this way before, and it was terrifying. How did someone as young and stupid as Liam ever find this easy and thrilling?

I watched Rachel's little black car speed off onto the road and into the darkness. I decided then that even if it never went anywhere, I had to protect her. Let Liam think what he would, let Cora say whatever, I had to do this.

Maybe after all this time, I had finally found a purpose.

**I know the story has probably begun to slack a bit, and with both sides, it might be confusing, but I hope you'll stay with me, I promise it's going to get better! Thanks for reading, and have a good day!**